Blueprint Gaming Casinos – All You Need to Know
Founded in 2007, Blueprint Gaming is based in Nottinghamshire, with the majority of its workforce based in the company’s headquarters on a typically ordinary industrial estate in in Newark. This is a small town, around halfway between Nottingham and the smaller neighbouring city of Lincoln.
The company‘s talents were quickly spotted by gaming industry observers, and immediately became the target of major companies looking to expand their own capabilities. Barely a year after being formed, Blueprint Gaming were effectively acquired by the giant family run German gaming conglomerate Gauselmann, when they bought a controlling 50% stake in the fledgling British firm in 2008. This arrangement was formalised in 2012, when the German giants completed the takeover by buying the remaining shares in the company.
Like its owners, Blueprint Gaming is involved in all aspects of gaming design. It has major interests in designing games for land based casinos as well as for the online market. Owners Gauselmann regard these markets as one and the same. Therefore Blueprint also see the design of software for real world cabinet gaming in pubs, clubs and casinos, and online gaming as one and the same.
David Purvis, the Managing Director of Blueprint operations, stated in December 2019 that he saw “strong evidence [for a] crossover between games that are popular online and their bricks and mortar versions found in Pubs, AGCs [amusement arcades] and Bingo.”
Gauselmann also has another larger in-house subsidiary brand called Merkur Gaming, which also operates in a similar fashion, focusing on cabinet game designs, which are then customised for the digital online market.
As time goes by, it is becoming more difficult to distinguish between the two brands. Both Blueprint and Merkur seem to work on each other’s designs in order to ensure compatibility with both real world and digital applications. It is probably best to regard both companies’ games as ‘Gauselmann’ and the individual brands as mere marketing tools. Most Gauselmann games are available for both online and real world play, although the precise version and pay-out table may vary.
Blueprint Gaming – The Games
The Blueprint Gaming brand has around a hundred different games currently available. Most are slots, but there are some other formats such as scratch cards. These are customised from their five reel designs.
The company produce a wide range of entertaining titles. Whilst a proportion of these do fall in line with the conventional genre pattern, Blueprint Gaming does have some areas of specialism which do make them distinctive from many of their peers.
Traditionally themed games include several titles amongst the Ancient Egyptian and Irish Luck genres. Eye of Horus, Scribes of Thebes and Wonders of Egypt are chock-full of the usual pyramidal and pharaonic features, while Luck of the Irish, Pots o’ Riches, Slots O’ Gold and Wish upon a Leprechaun should contain more than enough shamrocks, rainbows and gold coins to keep even the most greedy mischievous little men happy.
However, it is the company’s wide variety of officially licenced games which really help it to stand out from the crowd. This is especially the case with its animated features. Anarchic cartoon characters like Beavis and Butt-Head and Rick and Morty are brilliantly re-created for slot action, while the more old school but equally popular Top Cat also gets a Blueprint Gaming upgrade. Of particular interest to UK based players may well be the company’s customisation of the ‘adult’ comic Viz, featuring many of the animated anti-heroes of the parodic periodical.
Movies also get the Blueprint Gaming treatment, with The Goonies, Ted and even the vintage British 1960s comedy Carry On Camping receiving a fitting tribute. The iconic TV quiz show franchise Deal or No Deal also gets several different slot formats, as its popularity seems set to continue for the foreseeable future.
In fact, the company’s talent for games customised to order seems to have no limit as they are also uniquely adept at producing games exclusively for their commercial partners. Examples here include specific ‘one site only’ slots for the likes of Dafabet, William Hill, Sky Vegas, Virgin Games and more.
The overall characteristic of their entire portfolio is certainly varied though. Many titles simply don’t fit into any of the established genres. Thai Flower is a good example of this, while Fishin’ Frenzy is particularly popular, and is available in several different formats. The company also makes regular use of the trademarked ‘Megaways’ mechanic to upgrade many of their original designs.
Summary
The future of the Blueprint Gaming brand seems assured, even as the company’s independence fades. It seems to be being increasingly absorbed into the Gauselmann Group conglomerate’s corporate umbrella. Nevertheless, the financial backing and industry influence of its giant owners will ensure the name lives on. Indeed, there seem to be many new games in prospect as the company announces a regular release schedule for the foreseeable future. Look out for these and their legacy games at your chosen Aspire Global casino.